October 15, 2025 • 12 mins
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Crooks, liars, and con artists—this time the trail leads straight from Wall Street to Washington. The bankrupt Tricolor auto lender is the latest “community development” disaster, propped up by big banks and government programs that forced reckless lending to unqualified buyers. From bogus credit scores and missing car titles to BlackRock’s ESG spin and Pimco’s bad bets, this is another case study in how political virtue-signaling and financial greed collide—leaving taxpayers and low-income buyers holding the bag.
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/watchdog-on-wall-street-with-chris-markowski/id570687608
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2PtgPvJvqc2gkpGIkNMR5i
WATCH and SUBSCRIBE on:
https://www.youtube.com/@WatchdogOnWallstreet/featured
Crooks, liars, and con artists—this time the trail leads straight from Wall Street to Washington. The bankrupt Tricolor auto lender is the latest “community development” disaster, propped up by big banks and government programs that forced reckless lending to unqualified buyers. From bogus credit scores and missing car titles to BlackRock’s ESG spin and Pimco’s bad bets, this is another case study in how political virtue-signaling and financial greed collide—leaving taxpayers and low-income buyers holding the bag.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Watchdog on Wall Street podcast explaining the news coming
out of the complex worlds of finance, economics, and politics
and the impact that we'll have on everyday Americans. Author,
investment banker, consumer advocate, analyst and trader Chris.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Markowski, conorists, conn artists, Crooks, Liars, cheats on Wall Street
and Washington. We were pretty pretty much first in reporting
this story was a month month and a half ago.
Here on the program. We kind of take pride in,
you know, it's like being first when we report on things.
(00:38):
But it's more important to be accurate, more important to
be right. Yes, more skeletons coming out of the closet
on this try color auto lender bankruptcy, and again it's
the usual suspects. It's Wall Street and Washington. JP Morgan
(01:00):
reported that they lost. They're taking one hundred and seventy
million dollar charge. Taking one hundred and seventy million dollar charge.
But the reality of the situation is is it really
a charge? Is it really a charge or is it
just kind of like a fee? Okay, look, I'm not
looking at like a charge. I'm looking at like a fee.
(01:22):
And I'll explain to this a little bit. The federal government.
Federal government basically told banks out there, you know, you
better make some loans to this Tri Color company and
others like it.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
We'll get into that.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
So, okay, Try Color filed for Chapter seven bankruptcy. Wasn't
a matter of if, it was a matter of when.
And I do believe I do believe that JP Morgan
and the others were aware of this. The Justice Department
is now looking into try coolor for double pledging collateral.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Jamie Diamond said.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
He said that, uh oh yeah, Try Color was not
our finest moment.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Hmm.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
He also said that failure could pretend more problems that
are in the credit markets. You don't say something we
have been saying for some time here anyway. Yeah, when
you see a cockroach, there are probably more. Diamond said, yeah,
he's not wrong, but again, one hundred and seventy million dollars,
(02:37):
JP Morgan, Well again, look at it as a fee
and I'll get into that in a little bit. So
a Tricolor bond offering this year showed that more than
two thirds of its bar wars lacked a credit score,
(02:58):
two thirds of its borrowers lacked a credit score, and
quite I'm gonna be honest with you, I didn't even
know you could do that. Maybe I'd be a little
bit naive. You're borrowing to buy a car and you
have no credit score. For those with a credit score,
(03:20):
the average was six fourteen. Again, I bought a car before,
and you know that. You know you go in there
to ask for a lot of information. Again, I want
to remind everybody that auto dealers are considered financial institutions.
Just so you know, more than half, more than half
(03:43):
of the borrowers didn't have a driver's license. My mother
in law has a driver's license and she doesn't even
know how to drive.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Okay, drives, Okay, I'm trying to figure this out.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
More than half didn't have a driver's license. The state
of Texas cited Tricolor more than one hundred and thirty
times between twenty nineteen and twenty twenty two for selling cars.
And wait for it, this is just how the type
of evil that exists in this world. It's extraordinary to me. Again,
(04:25):
it never ceases to amaze. Try Color was selling cars
which it didn't hold the title. The dealer also sold
cars at prices on average forty six percent more than
Kelly Bluebook's fair purchase price value.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
So this was the thing.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
You had illegals here in the United States and try Color,
Try Color and there the people that work there and
the people that were involved with this saw an opportunity
to rip these people off, saying, oh jeez, okay, they're
not legal. Are they gonna complain if we rip them off?
(05:12):
They're not going to be able to get a car
through a you know some of these other ways. So
you know what, either going to be taken or leave it.
You're gonna pay for a car that you have to have.
You're here illegal here in the United States. And I
know you'll get some a holes that are listeners right now.
Soon's a bruink they were illegal? Are you kidding me?
Smack yourself upside the head and go to church for
(05:32):
crying out loud. Anyway, many customers defaulted in short order,
resulting in cars being repossessed. Then Tricolor would we sell them?
Speaker 3 (05:45):
How does this happen? Will here comes Washington? Oh yes?
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Back in twenty nineteen, the Treasury Department designated Tricolor as
a Community development financial institution.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Oh yes, Social Washington merch store.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
We're gonna swear helping people community development financial institution. Again,
I ran could have come up with that title. Now,
this program was put together back in nineteen ninety four.
A lot of crazy financial crap happened during the nineteen nineties.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
A lot.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Yeah, all those funky mortgages put together by Andrew Cuomo
when he was head of Housing and Urban Development under Clinton.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
He was probably involved with this too in some way,
shape matter form. This is Clinton administration stuff. The goal
was expanding credit.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
Here's the goal.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Oh, we are noble, we are wonderful, expanding credit for
minority and lower income folks. Okay, first and foremost, this
is part of the problem with you leftists out there.
You're not helping anyone. You're not helping anyone by allowing
(07:04):
them access to capital that they do not deserve based
upon their situation.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
You get it.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Banks aren't gonna give it, damn all. If you let
banks alone, lending institutions alone, what do they care about
whether or not they're going to make their money back
period the end.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
It's just that simple. Oh do I believe that? You know?
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Redlining was a thing way back in the day in
some institutions. Absolutely, Okay, But what you do is you
try to auto correct and you make matters worse. So
expanding credit for minority and lower income folks. Again, you
(07:56):
can afford to pay back the loan, or you can't
afford to pay back the loan low income. Maybe you
know your low income, you don't. You can't afford these
things at this point in time. Come back when you
can afford these things.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
Yeah, what they need? No?
Speaker 2 (08:10):
No, no, no again. You have to make your way
through life. Do you get to a certain point in time? Okay?
Speaker 3 (08:17):
But anyway.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
In order okay, this get that cd FI designation. This
is the government would allow for lending institutions to get
special grants. Yes, and it could also help them lower
their borrowing costs. Banks can meet their Community Reinvestment Act
(08:40):
obligations to invest in low income communities by lending two
CDFI's Community Reinvestment Act. I wrote about it extensively during
the financial crisis.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
This was Carter era stuff.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Carter again a a over correction when it came to
redlining where you were and forcing banks to make.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Loans to people who they knew.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
You understand, banks knew that they were making home loans
to people that were going to default and how to
do it anyway, So what does a bank do it?
Had Obviously they're going to have to make that money
up elsewhere, and they're going to do it based upon
the backs of people who can afford to pay anyway. Tricolor,
(09:30):
Tricolor had this CDFI designation and they used it. They
marketed this, allowing them to get more money.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Blackrock cited tricolors CDFI designation in a twenty twenty two
press release for its ninety million dollar investment.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Wall Street Journal reporting on this today.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Tricolor is a financial.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
Tech coloric lists bullshit.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Is a fine financial tech company with a majority. Look
at these flippin' buzz words. Okay, this is again, this
is These are buzzwords that are porn for leftists. A
fine tech company with a majority diverse employee base. Again,
(10:20):
never given a rat buttox when it came to your
employee base, where they're from, what color they are, Are
they good or are they not good? Anyway, majority diverse
employee base that leverages.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
Again, here are more buzzwords.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Proprietary AI power technology to sell and provide financing for
high quality, affordable used vehicles to underserve LATINX customer. First off,
black Rock, you guys are just perpetually lying to people
(10:54):
all the time. You're so full of crap, it's not funny.
And again, I still don't know what a lack nex's.
I still have no concept of what it is. Anyway,
much of their marketing was hyped, nobody seemed to care.
They borrowed billions of dollars from banks to make loans
(11:15):
to customers, which were then packaged and sold as part of.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
Wait for it, here we go asset VAC securities to Pimco.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Pimco, you guys used to be on top of crap.
You guys are a bunch of morons now, aren't you.
Alliance Bernstein bought this garbage too. Anyway, Tricolor last year
said that a bond offering was oversubscribed by nearly six
point five times. Ah, yes, again, this giving investors a
(11:46):
false sense of security and oh geez, we can, we
can relax our underwriting standards. This all sound familiar. Kind
of seen this movie before, haven't we? Yeah again? Another example,
and how the government getting involved with Wall Street and
dictating terms and contributing to all sorts of reckless investing
(12:09):
and again, like I said, JP Morgan, again, they may
have lost on some of this stuff, but believe you me,
they offloaded a lot, allowed them to lend to the
other institutions that they wanted to. They basically it was
basically a licensing fee allowing them to do more business.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
That's it. Funny thing is that.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
The Trump administration, and again good good for them, they've
been trying to shrink this program.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
They've been trying to get rid of this BS. But
she Wiz.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
Both Democrats, and both Democrats and Republicans are opposing him.
Watchdog on Wall Street dot Com
The Watchdog on Wall Street podcast explaining the news coming
out of the complex worlds of finance, economics, and politics
and the impact that we'll have on everyday Americans. Author,
investment banker, consumer advocate, analyst and trader Chris.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Markowski, conorists, conn artists, Crooks, Liars, cheats on Wall Street
and Washington. We were pretty pretty much first in reporting
this story was a month month and a half ago.
Here on the program. We kind of take pride in,
you know, it's like being first when we report on things.
(00:38):
But it's more important to be accurate, more important to
be right. Yes, more skeletons coming out of the closet
on this try color auto lender bankruptcy, and again it's
the usual suspects. It's Wall Street and Washington. JP Morgan
(01:00):
reported that they lost. They're taking one hundred and seventy
million dollar charge. Taking one hundred and seventy million dollar charge.
But the reality of the situation is is it really
a charge? Is it really a charge or is it
just kind of like a fee? Okay, look, I'm not
looking at like a charge. I'm looking at like a fee.
(01:22):
And I'll explain to this a little bit. The federal government.
Federal government basically told banks out there, you know, you
better make some loans to this Tri Color company and
others like it.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
We'll get into that.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
So, okay, Try Color filed for Chapter seven bankruptcy. Wasn't
a matter of if, it was a matter of when.
And I do believe I do believe that JP Morgan
and the others were aware of this. The Justice Department
is now looking into try coolor for double pledging collateral.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Jamie Diamond said.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
He said that, uh oh yeah, Try Color was not
our finest moment.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Hmm.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
He also said that failure could pretend more problems that
are in the credit markets. You don't say something we
have been saying for some time here anyway. Yeah, when
you see a cockroach, there are probably more. Diamond said, yeah,
he's not wrong, but again, one hundred and seventy million dollars,
(02:37):
JP Morgan, Well again, look at it as a fee
and I'll get into that in a little bit. So
a Tricolor bond offering this year showed that more than
two thirds of its bar wars lacked a credit score,
(02:58):
two thirds of its borrowers lacked a credit score, and
quite I'm gonna be honest with you, I didn't even
know you could do that. Maybe I'd be a little
bit naive. You're borrowing to buy a car and you
have no credit score. For those with a credit score,
(03:20):
the average was six fourteen. Again, I bought a car before,
and you know that. You know you go in there
to ask for a lot of information. Again, I want
to remind everybody that auto dealers are considered financial institutions.
Just so you know, more than half, more than half
(03:43):
of the borrowers didn't have a driver's license. My mother
in law has a driver's license and she doesn't even
know how to drive.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Okay, drives, Okay, I'm trying to figure this out.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
More than half didn't have a driver's license. The state
of Texas cited Tricolor more than one hundred and thirty
times between twenty nineteen and twenty twenty two for selling cars.
And wait for it, this is just how the type
of evil that exists in this world. It's extraordinary to me. Again,
(04:25):
it never ceases to amaze. Try Color was selling cars
which it didn't hold the title. The dealer also sold
cars at prices on average forty six percent more than
Kelly Bluebook's fair purchase price value.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
So this was the thing.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
You had illegals here in the United States and try Color,
Try Color and there the people that work there and
the people that were involved with this saw an opportunity
to rip these people off, saying, oh jeez, okay, they're
not legal. Are they gonna complain if we rip them off?
(05:12):
They're not going to be able to get a car
through a you know some of these other ways. So
you know what, either going to be taken or leave it.
You're gonna pay for a car that you have to have.
You're here illegal here in the United States. And I
know you'll get some a holes that are listeners right now.
Soon's a bruink they were illegal? Are you kidding me?
Smack yourself upside the head and go to church for
(05:32):
crying out loud. Anyway, many customers defaulted in short order,
resulting in cars being repossessed. Then Tricolor would we sell them?
Speaker 3 (05:45):
How does this happen? Will here comes Washington? Oh yes?
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Back in twenty nineteen, the Treasury Department designated Tricolor as
a Community development financial institution.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Oh yes, Social Washington merch store.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
We're gonna swear helping people community development financial institution. Again,
I ran could have come up with that title. Now,
this program was put together back in nineteen ninety four.
A lot of crazy financial crap happened during the nineteen nineties.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
A lot.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Yeah, all those funky mortgages put together by Andrew Cuomo
when he was head of Housing and Urban Development under Clinton.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
He was probably involved with this too in some way,
shape matter form. This is Clinton administration stuff. The goal
was expanding credit.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
Here's the goal.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Oh, we are noble, we are wonderful, expanding credit for
minority and lower income folks. Okay, first and foremost, this
is part of the problem with you leftists out there.
You're not helping anyone. You're not helping anyone by allowing
(07:04):
them access to capital that they do not deserve based
upon their situation.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
You get it.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Banks aren't gonna give it, damn all. If you let
banks alone, lending institutions alone, what do they care about
whether or not they're going to make their money back
period the end.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
It's just that simple. Oh do I believe that? You know?
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Redlining was a thing way back in the day in
some institutions. Absolutely, Okay, But what you do is you
try to auto correct and you make matters worse. So
expanding credit for minority and lower income folks. Again, you
(07:56):
can afford to pay back the loan, or you can't
afford to pay back the loan low income. Maybe you
know your low income, you don't. You can't afford these
things at this point in time. Come back when you
can afford these things.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
Yeah, what they need? No?
Speaker 2 (08:10):
No, no, no again. You have to make your way
through life. Do you get to a certain point in time? Okay?
Speaker 3 (08:17):
But anyway.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
In order okay, this get that cd FI designation. This
is the government would allow for lending institutions to get
special grants. Yes, and it could also help them lower
their borrowing costs. Banks can meet their Community Reinvestment Act
(08:40):
obligations to invest in low income communities by lending two
CDFI's Community Reinvestment Act. I wrote about it extensively during
the financial crisis.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
This was Carter era stuff.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Carter again a a over correction when it came to
redlining where you were and forcing banks to make.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Loans to people who they knew.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
You understand, banks knew that they were making home loans
to people that were going to default and how to
do it anyway, So what does a bank do it?
Had Obviously they're going to have to make that money
up elsewhere, and they're going to do it based upon
the backs of people who can afford to pay anyway. Tricolor,
(09:30):
Tricolor had this CDFI designation and they used it. They
marketed this, allowing them to get more money.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Blackrock cited tricolors CDFI designation in a twenty twenty two
press release for its ninety million dollar investment.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Wall Street Journal reporting on this today.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Tricolor is a financial.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
Tech coloric lists bullshit.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Is a fine financial tech company with a majority. Look
at these flippin' buzz words. Okay, this is again, this
is These are buzzwords that are porn for leftists. A
fine tech company with a majority diverse employee base. Again,
(10:20):
never given a rat buttox when it came to your
employee base, where they're from, what color they are, Are
they good or are they not good? Anyway, majority diverse
employee base that leverages.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
Again, here are more buzzwords.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Proprietary AI power technology to sell and provide financing for
high quality, affordable used vehicles to underserve LATINX customer. First off,
black Rock, you guys are just perpetually lying to people
(10:54):
all the time. You're so full of crap, it's not funny.
And again, I still don't know what a lack nex's.
I still have no concept of what it is. Anyway,
much of their marketing was hyped, nobody seemed to care.
They borrowed billions of dollars from banks to make loans
(11:15):
to customers, which were then packaged and sold as part of.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
Wait for it, here we go asset VAC securities to Pimco.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Pimco, you guys used to be on top of crap.
You guys are a bunch of morons now, aren't you.
Alliance Bernstein bought this garbage too. Anyway, Tricolor last year
said that a bond offering was oversubscribed by nearly six
point five times. Ah, yes, again, this giving investors a
(11:46):
false sense of security and oh geez, we can, we
can relax our underwriting standards. This all sound familiar. Kind
of seen this movie before, haven't we? Yeah again? Another example,
and how the government getting involved with Wall Street and
dictating terms and contributing to all sorts of reckless investing
(12:09):
and again, like I said, JP Morgan, again, they may
have lost on some of this stuff, but believe you me,
they offloaded a lot, allowed them to lend to the
other institutions that they wanted to. They basically it was
basically a licensing fee allowing them to do more business.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
That's it. Funny thing is that.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
The Trump administration, and again good good for them, they've
been trying to shrink this program.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
They've been trying to get rid of this BS. But
she Wiz.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
Both Democrats, and both Democrats and Republicans are opposing him.
Watchdog on Wall Street dot Com
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